Parker Hudson Kelly was born to be awesome.

This photo of him sitting on a pink suit case with a water gun in his hands is CLASSIC Parker. The kid just reeks of awesomeness.

It is a pleasure to have this opportunity to celebrate him on his birthday and tell you a bit about my GIGANTIC little brother, Parker.

Born to our family on June 11th 16 years ago, the last of nine kids, he arrived on the large side. Tipping the scales at 9lbs 15oz he was already cooler than any of the rest of us. As you can see I was pretty excited when he joined our family.

I still remember sitting in Miss Lettera’s math class watching the clock. My mom was in labor and there I was doing stink’n stupid geometry. (Having had two children I would prefer to be in labor over doing geometry).  This was in the days before cell phones…we just had to wait, and wait, and wait until word came that our little brother had touched the ground and was officially one of our merry little band. When we knew he was with us, safe and sound, we did a  jig of happiness.

He was an awesome little kid. Fun, kind, and deep. He has always been a deep thinker and he also feels things in a very deep way. Recently he and my mom were talking together and discussing each member of our family, he summed up each one of us brilliantly in one sentence. I still think about that and am gobsmacked by it.

He also has a heart of gold.  When he was little my mom explained the plan of salvation to him – you know, the classic drawing. We later found this picture she’d drawn for him taped up on his closet wall, and in his little boy, scratchy handwriting he had written the phrase, “GOD’S RULES”. Parker cares about keeping those rules, and oh! how I love him for it.

The golden heart of that little boy still beats strong and true in his grown-up man body.

And I know I am his very proud, and rather bias older sister but all I gotta say is, “Hey, Zack Efron – you ain’t got nothing on my brotha!”

He is a handsome feller. Attention all you single ladies out there -just for your info,  he is as nice as he is handsome.

I hope he wont mind me mentioning that he still puts his head on his mom’s shoulder, he also puts his arm around his sisters when we are walking along together, he gives great hugs (not wimpy ones – like some of this other brothers who have had to endure some criticism on this subject) he loved to snuggle as a little guy – and he is still keeping it real in the snuggle department today.

Parker is funny. He really gets me laughing. He is also very, very creative. I wish I could show you some of his short films. They are awesome.

Parker has the same heroes for a long time. He dressed up as one of them on a Halloween many moons ago. Can you spot him in the crowd?

I’ll give you a clue.

He is still dressing up like this particular hero today. Here he is pictured this past Christmas.

All silliness aside, Parker has been through some pretty big challenges in the last few years. He has faced them courageously.  It has been a lonely, hard road – but he has kept his faith and kept going until he came out on the other side.

I love you, Parker.

Thank you for being such a great brother.

Thank you for being such a swell uncle to my little girls.

Thank you for being a great son to mom and dad.

Thank you for being  a good friend to all who are blessed to know you.

YOU ROCK!

(I started this post with one of my very favorite photos of Parker and I end it with another of my favorites. CLASSIC Parker! Long may he reign!)